# Insights

> Notes from the LastDoor team on what we learn from the work: how we build, run and retire the products, websites and systems we make.

Source: https://lastdoorsolutions.com/blog

- [A rebranding checklist for the mark, the print and the website](https://lastdoorsolutions.com/blog/rebranding-checklist): A brand can lose consistency between logo, print and website. A checklist for each, from a project where one team held all three.
- [A research participant portal that protects participants first](https://lastdoorsolutions.com/blog/research-participant-portal): A research registry serves volunteers and researchers. The volunteers come first, and every request for their data goes past people and onto the record.
- [A research project website has to outlive its grant](https://lastdoorsolutions.com/blog/research-project-website): A research project's website keeps answering after the funding ends, so it is built around the parts of the programme that last.
- [A running site gives a design system its starting point](https://lastdoorsolutions.com/blog/build-a-design-system-for-a-running-site): A design system for a site already in use starts from what is live. A before and after of each part is the case for every change.
- [Agree the user's path before anyone draws a screen](https://lastdoorsolutions.com/blog/agree-the-path-before-the-screens): We drew three layouts too early. Now we agree the user's path, with every branch, before anyone opens a design file.
- [Async Communication with an outside development team, from 16 years of tickets](https://lastdoorsolutions.com/blog/async-communication-with-a-development-team): How Anchor Wave and LastDoor kept thousands of jobs moving for sixteen years in writing, with fewer than five meetings a year and a record of each job.
- [Change your hotel booking engine without rebuilding the website](https://lastdoorsolutions.com/blog/change-hotel-booking-engine): A hotel booking engine sits behind a date picker and a button on each room. Change those parts, and the rooms, pages and addresses stay as they are.
- [How to choose a software development partner for years of work](https://lastdoorsolutions.com/blog/choosing-a-software-development-partner): A proposal shows the first three months. A partner's longest engagement, and who owned what in it, shows the years after.
- [Legacy software redesign: change the controls first, then the tasks](https://lastdoorsolutions.com/blog/legacy-software-redesign): TraqIT's event software had run since 1998. A first release changed the controls on the layout users knew; the task-based design came second.
- [PHP 8.2 end of life: what to do before 31 December](https://lastdoorsolutions.com/blog/php-8-2-end-of-life): After 31 December 2026, PHP 8.2 loses upstream security fixes. Moving to a supported version depends on compatibility, verification and someone owning the change.
- [Refactor or rewrite a website people already use? How to decide](https://lastdoorsolutions.com/blog/refactor-or-rewrite-a-running-website): Three running products we changed one part at a time, the signs that a full rewrite is the better call, and five questions to decide it.
- [WCAG 2.2: what changed from 2.1, and what a machine can test](https://lastdoorsolutions.com/blog/wcag-2-2): WCAG 2.2 adds six criteria at levels A and AA. Our automated checks cover target size; manual testing is needed across the new requirements.
- [What a retired inquiry chatbot taught us about guardrails](https://lastdoorsolutions.com/blog/ai-chatbot-guardrails): A retired enquiry chatbot left useful lessons about human handover, failure handling and the gaps a checklist can hide.
- [What a travel booking system has to do behind the trip page](https://lastdoorsolutions.com/blog/travel-booking-system): A traveller sees the trip page. A tour operator runs on what sits behind it: departures, group prices, payments and where each enquiry came from.
- [What a VPAT tells you and what to check before trusting it](https://lastdoorsolutions.com/blog/what-a-vpat-tells-you): An accessibility report records a supplier's claims. Its value depends on the testing, scope and limits behind them.